I'm on a Mac again. And it's in great condition, hardly any software, not much running, and still, it takes hours for the letters to appear on the screen. It only has one task, why can't it do it right? Seriously, it's like having Hugh Grant as a keyboard.
Why am I on a Mac? It's a long story. I'm not at Sarah's anymore. Most of you know my sister went on her Around the World Gap Year trip. So I said goodbye to her in March, and she's only back in England September 5th. That's a hell of a long time to not see your sister for (I was away seven weeks before and that was long, but this has been horrible). For her last two weeks, she's in Canada, for my cousin's 21st birthday (Roan, I went to Ireland with him last Christmas with Yunhae, you remember!). I've been wanting to go, but tickets were around five hundred pounds. Far too much. I found one for 400, but still, it was too much. Eventually, I found one for 275, and my father agreed that I should be there, especially since my mother was flying out to be there as well, a big family get together. Then I found the exact same flight for 210 pounds. Bargain. And I'm here, in Nova Scotia. And I love it. Canada's like the holy grail of countries for me. It's got awesome family, it's beautiful and everything is cheap. It's a very easy going lifestyle.
Anyway, I can't go into details, it's late, and I should be sleeping soon, but I thought you should know. Driving here, by the way, is horrible. The cars are alright (hardly any German cars apart from Volkswagens), but the speed limits are draconian, and brutally enforced by hundreds of police cars. Major highways, and you can't go more then 60mph.
I'll let you know more soon, like tomorrow, we go to a remote lodge for a few days. I'll be on soon!
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Wednesday 29 August 2007
Thursday 16 August 2007
Back in Drive
As I write this, my hosting is suspended. This basically means that no one will be able to read this until it's paid again. This has happened because my Debit Card has now expired. Luckily, the bank decided to forget to send me a new one, so I don't have one for now. This means I'm stuck living off cash. It also made paying for my car hard. But I have my car back, it's repaired (new head gasket, cam belt and full service), and it drives beautifully. To test it out, I drove it to Cambridge, to stay with Sarah for a couple of days. I'm bored as hell at home, and while I am here (in Cambridge), I'm getting away from the city smog and hopefully some dirt roads will avail themselves.
Sadly, Sarah's family only has a Mac. An iMac. An old one. Not that old, around 2001-2. So it's about six years old. It's never had its OS upgraded, and has only had simple family use.
The keyboard and mouse are set in beautiful perspex, which looks very nice. Until all the crumbs, finger dirt and hairs slide down underneath the perspex, never to be dislodged and to stay there, glaringly disgusting, for all eternity.
On top of that, the failed version of a task bar, you know, all the icons that grow when you go near them, they're on the side. When you go to click the back button in Firefox, Finder jumps into your aim and you click that instead. Every single time. But not before the enlarging icons make the whole OS stutter as it works out how to make itself look pretty for you.
Most of the CRT has turned a nice shade of blue. It isn't possible to replace the monitor. This also means that the resolution is stuck at a very low setting. Luckily all the icons grow when you go near them so at this resolution they take up a third of the screen.
Right clicking involves using two hands. But you don't care when your mouse is so aesthetically simple. Until it comes to using the computer for actual computer things, then you start to care again. Even as I type the letters take a few seconds to appear on the screen, at a very basic rate (so the last phrase, 'very basic rate' hadn't even begun to appear on the screen by the time I had finished writing that sentence).
You're all screaming now that it's an old computer, it's had its day and now it's just a relic. It looked good in its time and worked in its time, now it should be upgraded. And also that CRTs fail after time. All of this wouldn't bother me so much apart from the fact that the Gateway we bought as a family in 2000, the one that all of us lived off, that I used the hell out of and didn't turn off for five years... it still works, it works well. You can right click, you can type and it appears as you type, nothing stutters (even though we upgraded the OS and not the processor), we gave it an extra drive for more space, and even though it has a severe adware infection, it is still a much better machine than this ever was. Yes, the CRT monitor broke but it was great because we replaced it without replacing the whole machine. It just worked, and it continued to just work for the last seven years. It can still run new 3D games that come out, something this Mac could never do no matter how new it was.
And although this is old, I have used new Macs and they're no different. They're awful, and if you want a better one you need to buy a new one. That is never true of PCs. PCs aren't nearly as cool as Macs, just as a Bristol Blenheim will never be as cool as a Ford StreetKa. I know which I'd drive.
Anyway, that's been building up in me for years, I'm glad I got it out. You'll all get to read this once I've paid for my hosting again.
Sadly, Sarah's family only has a Mac. An iMac. An old one. Not that old, around 2001-2. So it's about six years old. It's never had its OS upgraded, and has only had simple family use.
The keyboard and mouse are set in beautiful perspex, which looks very nice. Until all the crumbs, finger dirt and hairs slide down underneath the perspex, never to be dislodged and to stay there, glaringly disgusting, for all eternity.
On top of that, the failed version of a task bar, you know, all the icons that grow when you go near them, they're on the side. When you go to click the back button in Firefox, Finder jumps into your aim and you click that instead. Every single time. But not before the enlarging icons make the whole OS stutter as it works out how to make itself look pretty for you.
Most of the CRT has turned a nice shade of blue. It isn't possible to replace the monitor. This also means that the resolution is stuck at a very low setting. Luckily all the icons grow when you go near them so at this resolution they take up a third of the screen.
Right clicking involves using two hands. But you don't care when your mouse is so aesthetically simple. Until it comes to using the computer for actual computer things, then you start to care again. Even as I type the letters take a few seconds to appear on the screen, at a very basic rate (so the last phrase, 'very basic rate' hadn't even begun to appear on the screen by the time I had finished writing that sentence).
You're all screaming now that it's an old computer, it's had its day and now it's just a relic. It looked good in its time and worked in its time, now it should be upgraded. And also that CRTs fail after time. All of this wouldn't bother me so much apart from the fact that the Gateway we bought as a family in 2000, the one that all of us lived off, that I used the hell out of and didn't turn off for five years... it still works, it works well. You can right click, you can type and it appears as you type, nothing stutters (even though we upgraded the OS and not the processor), we gave it an extra drive for more space, and even though it has a severe adware infection, it is still a much better machine than this ever was. Yes, the CRT monitor broke but it was great because we replaced it without replacing the whole machine. It just worked, and it continued to just work for the last seven years. It can still run new 3D games that come out, something this Mac could never do no matter how new it was.
And although this is old, I have used new Macs and they're no different. They're awful, and if you want a better one you need to buy a new one. That is never true of PCs. PCs aren't nearly as cool as Macs, just as a Bristol Blenheim will never be as cool as a Ford StreetKa. I know which I'd drive.
Anyway, that's been building up in me for years, I'm glad I got it out. You'll all get to read this once I've paid for my hosting again.
Tuesday 7 August 2007
I Promised
Ok, if I don't update for this long again, it means I'm dead. Or bored of blogging.
A lot has happened since my last entry, which was made as I scrabbled together my final pieces of work for University. You'll be happy to know that for that final piece of PHP programming I got a good seventy something percent. Since then, I moved out.
Moving out was without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life. We fought hard to get everything done, and I realised, at the pain of my flatmates, that I had a lot of stuff. It was cool that we rented a Ford Transit (which is fantastic, it's so nice to drive a machine that is pure utility, I want to buy one), and it was cool to see everything I had ever brought home, but it was horrible throwing so much stuff away (including my beautiful big blue chair which Kiana was so fond of).
It was stressful. Kiana had already moved out a week or so before, and Mizuki had just returned from Japan the day before, and we were scrubbing everything from behind the washing machine to the bathroom ceiling. But we cleaned the house out, and it was done. When the stress was over, and after I had showered, I dropped Emma off in London, or, at least, I tried. I didn't watch the temperature while I was stopped in traffic, and my car overheated. The £160 repair bill was only made worse by a subsequent (and as of this afternoon still unfinished) repair job to the head gasket that will cost in the £600 range. I haven't driven my BMW in over a month, and it pains me.
But we have lots of cars, and I have been borrowing my parents' cars. Why, just last week my father and I took my mother's car (the MG) all the way from London to Fonchanina, Northern Spain. We found a twisty road on Google Maps, and decided we would make it there, tackling the winding and snaking roads of the Pyrenees, with a trip through Andorra. While I love to blog while travelling, I didn't have a computer there, nor the energy to type out my doings on a mobile phone. So I will write what I remember now.
With myself on the insurance for another week, we woke early Wednesday morning (3AM, August 1st) and drove to Dover. I was destroyed by the fact that I couldn't sleep due to my unfortunate waking hours, and the whole day that we were driving through France, I kept napping. In an open car, that's quite hard, when your father is pushing motorway speeds. But I managed, and we arrived in (near) Pui that evening, to a nice hotel with a tasty dinner. My French had entirely disappeared, and I kept speaking Japanese. Perhaps I only have room for one foreign language at a time. I confused plenty of French proprietors with 'arigatou'.
The next day we finally hit some proper roads. We only managed a couple of hundred miles, but that was because we were going on twisty roads. And roads with hairpins and chicanes are fun. It didn't take long adjusting to driving on the right, but most of the roads were empty, so it didn't matter where you were. That little car has wide tyres, and it's light. Combined with the mid-mounted engine, the turning response is immediate, and you have to be going quite fast and quite tightly just to get some understeer, and even then that disappears when you take the power off. I also drove over the Millau bridge, which was epic. The Top Gear presenters made a trip to the South of France just for that bridge, and I don't blame them. It's huge, and you feel incredible driving over it. We found a nice little hotel in Thuir, just a little north of the France/Spain border, and a wonderful buffet meal followed by a steak made the evening very comfortable. A lack of air-conditioning made it less so, but it wasn't too bad. I almost lost my wallet, but it was in the car the whole time. Lucky me.
The next day was amazing. We woke up in France, drove to Spain, then to France, then to Andorra, then to Spain again, ending in Sort with a modern and very cool hotel, overlooking a river full of canoes. The roads that day were very good fun. My father's driving scared me and my driving scared him, but it didn't matter, because the large amount of grip made it very hard to slide that car. We managed it a few times though. I even got some oversteer, which was great. However, the sun hit me quite badly that day, and my ear is still peeling a little.
Leaving Sort we drove along a variety of tiny Spanish roads, eventually locating Fonchanina, which was the closest town to our twisty road goal. The road was actually dirt, and far too rough for anything but a tractor, but we'd made it there, and could start heading back. The next hotel we found was only one star, but was reasonably comfortable. We baked that night though, and with no drinking water, it wasn't pleasant. One the plus side, a dubbed Spanish version of Independence Day was on during breakfast the next day.
We crossed back into France the next day, and with the most scenic pass over the mountain and one final twisty road, we drove all the way to Perignon, and stopped in a very swish and very expensive hotel, which made us comfortable for our last night on holiday. We drove solidly and quickly the next day, stopping only for one quick lap around Le Mans, and a visit to the Le Mans museum, which showed the history of the race, and some beautiful old cars. Mostly French. But the Mazda 787b was there, which is the ultimate race car for me right now. Then we drove all the way back to the ferry.
That makes it sound like all we did was get in the car and drive to the next hotel, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a driving holiday, seeking out the best mountain roads for pushing the car to its handling limits. And that's what we did, and we loved every second of it.
We got back in last night around 3:30AM, and now I have to go to bed because I have a job interview tomorrow at 9AM, and it's an hour's drive.
It's good to post again. I miss you people, I'll be back in a couple of days to fill you in on the rest of what I've been up to.
A lot has happened since my last entry, which was made as I scrabbled together my final pieces of work for University. You'll be happy to know that for that final piece of PHP programming I got a good seventy something percent. Since then, I moved out.
Moving out was without a doubt, one of the worst days of my life. We fought hard to get everything done, and I realised, at the pain of my flatmates, that I had a lot of stuff. It was cool that we rented a Ford Transit (which is fantastic, it's so nice to drive a machine that is pure utility, I want to buy one), and it was cool to see everything I had ever brought home, but it was horrible throwing so much stuff away (including my beautiful big blue chair which Kiana was so fond of).
It was stressful. Kiana had already moved out a week or so before, and Mizuki had just returned from Japan the day before, and we were scrubbing everything from behind the washing machine to the bathroom ceiling. But we cleaned the house out, and it was done. When the stress was over, and after I had showered, I dropped Emma off in London, or, at least, I tried. I didn't watch the temperature while I was stopped in traffic, and my car overheated. The £160 repair bill was only made worse by a subsequent (and as of this afternoon still unfinished) repair job to the head gasket that will cost in the £600 range. I haven't driven my BMW in over a month, and it pains me.
But we have lots of cars, and I have been borrowing my parents' cars. Why, just last week my father and I took my mother's car (the MG) all the way from London to Fonchanina, Northern Spain. We found a twisty road on Google Maps, and decided we would make it there, tackling the winding and snaking roads of the Pyrenees, with a trip through Andorra. While I love to blog while travelling, I didn't have a computer there, nor the energy to type out my doings on a mobile phone. So I will write what I remember now.
With myself on the insurance for another week, we woke early Wednesday morning (3AM, August 1st) and drove to Dover. I was destroyed by the fact that I couldn't sleep due to my unfortunate waking hours, and the whole day that we were driving through France, I kept napping. In an open car, that's quite hard, when your father is pushing motorway speeds. But I managed, and we arrived in (near) Pui that evening, to a nice hotel with a tasty dinner. My French had entirely disappeared, and I kept speaking Japanese. Perhaps I only have room for one foreign language at a time. I confused plenty of French proprietors with 'arigatou'.
The next day we finally hit some proper roads. We only managed a couple of hundred miles, but that was because we were going on twisty roads. And roads with hairpins and chicanes are fun. It didn't take long adjusting to driving on the right, but most of the roads were empty, so it didn't matter where you were. That little car has wide tyres, and it's light. Combined with the mid-mounted engine, the turning response is immediate, and you have to be going quite fast and quite tightly just to get some understeer, and even then that disappears when you take the power off. I also drove over the Millau bridge, which was epic. The Top Gear presenters made a trip to the South of France just for that bridge, and I don't blame them. It's huge, and you feel incredible driving over it. We found a nice little hotel in Thuir, just a little north of the France/Spain border, and a wonderful buffet meal followed by a steak made the evening very comfortable. A lack of air-conditioning made it less so, but it wasn't too bad. I almost lost my wallet, but it was in the car the whole time. Lucky me.
The next day was amazing. We woke up in France, drove to Spain, then to France, then to Andorra, then to Spain again, ending in Sort with a modern and very cool hotel, overlooking a river full of canoes. The roads that day were very good fun. My father's driving scared me and my driving scared him, but it didn't matter, because the large amount of grip made it very hard to slide that car. We managed it a few times though. I even got some oversteer, which was great. However, the sun hit me quite badly that day, and my ear is still peeling a little.
Leaving Sort we drove along a variety of tiny Spanish roads, eventually locating Fonchanina, which was the closest town to our twisty road goal. The road was actually dirt, and far too rough for anything but a tractor, but we'd made it there, and could start heading back. The next hotel we found was only one star, but was reasonably comfortable. We baked that night though, and with no drinking water, it wasn't pleasant. One the plus side, a dubbed Spanish version of Independence Day was on during breakfast the next day.
We crossed back into France the next day, and with the most scenic pass over the mountain and one final twisty road, we drove all the way to Perignon, and stopped in a very swish and very expensive hotel, which made us comfortable for our last night on holiday. We drove solidly and quickly the next day, stopping only for one quick lap around Le Mans, and a visit to the Le Mans museum, which showed the history of the race, and some beautiful old cars. Mostly French. But the Mazda 787b was there, which is the ultimate race car for me right now. Then we drove all the way back to the ferry.
That makes it sound like all we did was get in the car and drive to the next hotel, and that's pretty much what it was. It was a driving holiday, seeking out the best mountain roads for pushing the car to its handling limits. And that's what we did, and we loved every second of it.
We got back in last night around 3:30AM, and now I have to go to bed because I have a job interview tomorrow at 9AM, and it's an hour's drive.
It's good to post again. I miss you people, I'll be back in a couple of days to fill you in on the rest of what I've been up to.
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